The Bloody Veil

The next morning we learned about the death of one and the injury of another enemy spy. Soon the fight started again. I probably knew where I was standing, because the bullets whispered and hit the stones with a scratch. I could not shuffle. I stayed in this position for about ten minutes. Then they stopped shooting, apparently thinking it was over. I ran to another place and started shooting again. I lost half a gun shop and went down to the barracks. The commander ordered the defense. However, it was impossible to raise the head.

I don’t even remember when I ate. There was no food or water. From the stones came the heat, accumulated during the day. The throat is dry, it seems like it is filled with something hot. This is when you really feel the value of a spoonful of water.

The place we occupied was not very comfortable. Per that is why our commander decided to defend. They started moving under the rainy bullet towards the mountain. I, as a sapphire, had to go ahead and clean the road. The old, abandoned rocks were not replaced. All the soldiers who slipped after me had dirty and torn clothes, and the faces of them were dust and blood. I thought what a miserable spectacle we were. But it was for an external observer, and there were no such people here.

I accidentally noticed a narrow path, and we followed it. At a short distance, a guy from Khorezm followed me. Suddenly there was a deaf explosion. The explosive wave threw me a few meters away. I couldn’t see anything around, because everything was covered in dust. When the dust settled, I went looking for a path. I felt something sticky on my face, I felt it was blood. Someone from behind shouted: "You’re burning!" Only then I noticed my burning pants. A soldier named Samin helped me deal with the fire. This explosion shattered me deeply. The fragment broke out my left arm, one eye was filled with sand, and my left leg was heavily burned. Strangely, but at first I felt nothing and discovered the wounds gradually, as if exploring myself from the side. The boys put me on the blanket and took me. The bullets continued to accompany us, but fortunately no one was hit.

We went down two and a half kilometers. I asked my friend Sabir to give me water. The Russian guys asked what I asked him about and, learning what it was, said that drinking now is in no way possible, it can destroy the wounded. I felt bad, my condition worsened, tears turned. Deciding that it was time to say goodbye to life, I asked Sabir: "I will still die. You have my parent's address, don’t forget me! Tell all my family about me. Be with them more often. They will accept you as their son". I gave a friend a piece of paper.

Under the wind of helicopter blades, I came to myself. At first, the lieutenant was taken, he had no one leg. The blood slipped on the ground. Then they carried two red-haired soldiers and one black-haired soldier. All three were dead. Death gave their faces a common expression. Then they raised me.

When I was already in the air shouting "Water, water!" a pilot came out of the helicopter’s cockpit. Walking through the dead, he struck his foot in a puddle of blood. The scratches grabbed my face. I felt her taste and started licking.

– What is your name? You will live a long time. You will embrace the girls and kiss them in the lips to the blood. – You can’t drink water now, tolerate, soldiers, there is a little left, soon everything will be fine, – he said and, wiping out the blood from my face, disappeared in the cabin.

We arrived at a hospital in Shindon. The doctors were Kyrgyz.

– The operation will be heavy, a lot of blood has been lost, – said the colonel of the medical service.

I was lying in the cold room and hearing all that conversation. The nurse, cutting my clothes with blades, carefully removed it. Many of the Kyrgyz nurses had wet eyes. The war did not deprive these girls of compassion.

After the injection, the pain disappeared. At the first operation, my fingers were cut off. We prepared for the second, which lasted six hours. I don’t know how long I’ve been unconscious in the room. When I recovered, I was terribly surprised: I was all in the green. There were two slides above. One of them was tied to the hand, the other passed under the bed. When I lifted up the blanket, I saw that this end was tied to the other leg, to that, what was left of it…

Immediately in front of the eyes appeared the colloquial old men with bones. I lost consciousness…

At dawn, someone cried out, "Bahriddin, Bahriddin!" When I turned to the voice, I saw Sergeant Satin lying next to me. He also had a stump instead of one leg. Six hours after the operation, he started "walking" with the help of the boys.

– There was only a month before demobee, – he cried.

I also only had a month. Previously, I wrote home that the service was going "beautifully", and then I didn’t know what to write about. And in the last letter I said: "We are being taken out of Afghanistan".

When we landed at the airport of Tashkent, I remembered how I ran here once for tickets, loudly rattled! I studied in this city for only a year, from here I was called into the army. From the hospital, I wrote home that in five days we will fly from Tashkent to Kiev. In order for the households not to worry, I did not even name the department of the hospital in which I lie. They found me yet. My poor beloved parents came to Tashkent with my things in the hope of walking with me through this great beautiful city. When the nurse reported my parents’ arrival, I lay down without hiding. After hearing this message, I immediately covered my feet with a blanket, as if through it my parents would not notice anything. Two minutes later, my older brother entered the room. He was a doctor. I told him I broke my leg. He raised his head, bleached. When he hugged my head, he cried. I could no longer cry. There was one thought in my head: I became a burden on my family. I saw my mom and dad in a dream. My heart was shaken by joy and sorrow at the same time. My parents cried and hugged me. I lay like a stone statue. My whole life passed before my eyes: a happy childhood, careless youth, and a hard present. Now only the warm breath of mom and dad was the source of life.

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Примечания

1

Small pillow

2

Dervish – rambler.